Saturday, February 07, 2015

The New York Subway Bacteria Map

I'm not quite sure why you would want to do this but you can now search New York subway stations by the bacteria that were found there. Researchers from Weill Cornell Medical College found genetic material from 15,152 different species when they sampled DNA at 466 New York subway stations.

The Wall Street Journal has created a searchable map, Mapping the Bacteria in New York’s Subways, which allows you to view all the bacteria found in each different subway station or to view all the stations that a specific bacteria type was discovered in.

Most of the bacteria found by the researchers was harmless. There seems to be no clear pattern in the distribution of the harmful bacteria. Presumably if the researchers were to repeat the sampling they would find a completely different set of results. However, if you ignore the bacteria data, you could use the map to plan a journey across New York